EEOC investigates discrimination against unemployed for jobs

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a hearing last week to examine the treatment of unemployed Americans in hiring: Are employers discriminating against job seekers who are out of work?

Employers and staffing agencies have publicly advertised jobs in fields ranging from electronic engineers to restaurant and grocery managers to mortgage underwriters with the explicit restriction that only currently employed candidates will be considered, said Helen Norton, associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Law, at the public hearing on Feb. 16.

Denying jobs to the already-unemployed can also have a disproportionate effect on certain racial and ethnic job seekers, the witnesses said. African-Americans and Hispanics are overrepresented among the unemployed, Labor Department statistics show. Excluding the unemployed would be more likely to limit opportunities for older applicants as well as persons with disabilities, said William Spriggs, assistant secretary of labor for policy.

"At a moment when we all should be doing whatever we can to open up job opportunities to the unemployed, it is profoundly disturbing that the trend of deliberately excluding the jobless from work opportunities is on the rise,” said Christine Owens, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy organization for the unemployed.

Are you an unemployed job seeker who was denied a job opportunity because an employer is only hiring employed candidates? If you live in South Florida, e-mail me your story with your name, city, and best contact phone number at mpounds@sunsentinel.com.